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For all of you who are saying, "What does he mean?
Doesn't no mean possession, as in Sore wa boku
no inu desu?" let me assure you, that is 100%
correct. However, no is also frequently used
in another way, as an explainer. In speech, it is
often shortened to just n.
UseNo can be added directly to any verb or adjective. If you add it to a noun, it needs a na, just like "na-adjectives" (kirei, kantan, etc). No is used to say, "You see, this is why such-and-such." In this way, it's similar to wake, which I will be writing an article about soon. When asking a question that requires a reason, you often end it with no, rather than just the verb (in polite form, no desu ka instead of just desu ka). The most important thing to remember is that no gives a reason for something. Let me give you a few example sentences, and then we can discuss each one.
Naze paatii ni konakatta no?
How come you didn't come to the party? Okay, what's going on here? Notice that the first speaker ends her question with no. She is requesting a reason. The second speaker responds by giving the reason followed by no, shortened here to n. Recall that if you follow a noun with no, which we will see some examples of later, you need to use a na, as if the noun (or phrase) were actually a big adjective describing the no. It's like everything before the no is one thought that spills all its emphasis into the no. Okay, now read the second speaker's answer again, this time substituting the English word "reason" or "meaning" for n. Kazoku-majiwari-ga-atta reason dakara.... That helped it become clearer to me when I first learned it. It also works really well for the word wake. Let's look at another example sentence.
Ikitakunai n janai kedo, shukudai ga ippai aru n dakara. Not to brag, but I think that's a pretty good translation of what is going on here. Let's look at the sentence in two parts. First of all, Ikitakunai n janai. I-don't-want-to-go-meaning it's not= It doesn't mean I don't want to go= It's not that I don't want to go. The speaker doesn't want his actions to be misinterpreted. So he is explaining that it's not that he doesn't want to go, but, shukudai ga ippai aru n dakara. There-is-a-lot-of-homework-reason, so....=The reason is because I have a lot of homework= It's just that I have a lot of homework. Sometimes it helps students of Japanese to get the feel of no if they put "you see" in a translation of any sentence containing it.
Kuruma ga sugoku furui n dakara. You've probably noticed that almost every one of these example sentences has ended with dakara. That's because no sentences always explain something, so they go naturally with a dakara. Incidently, that last sentence is a perfect example of the type of explainer sentence that would take a no in Japanese. Maybe you can figure out how you would say it in Japanese and check out my translation at the bottom of this page. Because no is so intimately associated with explaining things, sometimes you don't even need the dakara. Perhaps you know the word node. Perhaps you believe in all sincerity, as I did, that it is a synonym for dakara. Well, yes, it means the same thing, but look at what is happening at the grammatical level. The no part is the same no that we've been talking about in this article. The de is the "-te form" of desu. Just as you can use the "-te form" of other verbs to break up your thought, you can do the same thing with the "-te form" of desu.
Omoshiroi hon de, yonde hoshii desu. The first sentence is basically two sentences spliced together. Omoshiroi hon desu. Yonde hoshii desu. The speaker decided to make her two thoughts into one longer sentence because it sounds more intelligent than talking three words at a time. The second sentence is the same deal, plus the explainer no put in. Omoshiroi hon na no de, The reason is it's an interesting book, and yonde hoshii desu, I want you to read it. Since she is explaining a reason to us, natually we would translate this into English using the word "so" or "therefore," etc. The most important thing to keep in mind is that, in this use, no is always explaining things, giving reasons, making excuses. If you keep this in mind, hopefully the more you hear this use of no, the more at ease you'll feel with it.
And for extra credit, see how you did on your translation. Of course, yours may vary slightly from mine--there's no one correct way. I like it this way.
That's because no sentences always explain something, so they go
naturally with a dakara. |